Providing linguistic access to curriculum: A description and assessment of American Sign Language proficiency of the teachers of the deaf.

Abstract

Signing skills of currently employed teachers of the deaf frequently lack the level of proficiency desired for their profession and continue to be largely underappreciated. A fuller understanding of American Sign Language (ASL) as a second language is necessary for the teachers who have learned the signed language after English as a first language and native language. The acquisition of ASL as a first language with young deaf children serves as a basis for the description and assessment of signed language proficiency involved. The structural pattern of ASL as occurred in two different classroom discourses are specifically examined based on the literature of first and second language acquisition. The relationship of ASL proficiency and classroom discourse also allow for assessing the effects of signing skills on the accessibility of the curriculum for deaf students.